The first two weeks in Estero

I arrived in Estero Del Platano about 8am after a 6 and a half hour night bus and then an 1 and a half hour ranchero ride (an open sided but covered truck with benches in the back to sit on). There was some confusion about where I would be staying so I checked in the onlyhotel in town and promptly took a nap. The next day I moved in with the family that I had stayed with when I´d come to visit for a weekend a month before. I was expecting to share the one bedroom in the house with my 12 and 14 year old sisters, but while I was away they doubled the size of their house, giving me my own room. The house used to be on stilts, with three rooms upstairs (living room/parents bedroom, kitchen, and one bedroom) but they finished the bottom of the house, moving the kitchen, living room and parents room below, so the upstairs is now the bedrooms for my two sisters and brother (who´s 10).

The upstairs that leads to my room (and you can see a bit of the new down stairs).
My 12 year old sister Wendy and 13 month old sister Katrina in front of the house. The house is actually outside of the main part of town, down the beach and across and estuary (that´s where the Estero in Estero Del Platano comes from). When the tide is low, I only have to wade across ankle deep water, but when the tide is high it can be as high as waist deep, so I you have to time things. Two rivers feed into the estuary, and there is a canoe by which at a point inland I can holler across the water and my brother comes paddling across to fetch me.

My new home taken from the bus stop across the estuary.

I spend my mornings doing laundry, running errands, or studying Spanish and my afternoonsworking in the taller (workshop) with the artisans. Sometimes I´m in the workshop in the mornings too. My first Saturday in town I went into the jungle to catch freshwater shrimp with some locals and the Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) that lives here.

Saturday night was the celebration of Saint Cristo Rey to acknowledge the beginning of advent. One of the community leaders said some very nice things about the volunteers that have come to his town and then invited us to help hold the ribbons off the saint during the procession through the town. The service started at 7:30, the procession started at about 9. We got back to the church around 10:30, and then after more scripture reading, at about 11pm, they served some of the best hot chocolate and cheese sandwiches I´ve ever had.

After the procession but before the hot chocolate:

This Sunday I played in women´s soccer game representing my town. We hardly had enough people to field a team (we were pulling women out of the stands on to the field) but we managed to win 6 to 0. I can´t say that I helped much with the scoring, but I did help with intimidation by my mere physical presence. :) Dad always did call me a brute.

That´s me in the middle if you zoom in.

The work that I came here to do is, as expected, not as simple as it originally sounded. The PCV and I hired a professional to come in and do some group development exercises. He´s been nice enough to let us help with the planning so that we can learn about the process. This appeals greatly to my interest in organization behavior so I´m pretty stoked about the whole thing.

Happy Thanksgiving and my love to you all.

Dayna

Taken from a hill to the north of town with the city behind me.

Taken on the beach on the way to my house looking back at the town, and the hill where the previous photo was taken.Pig digging for crabs on the beach.

Estero de Platano

Tonight I´m getting on a bus for Estero de Platano, a small town on the coast of Ecuador (and hour south of Atacames which is an hour south of Esmeraldas if you want to find in on a map). I will be volunteering for the next three months in this community of about 600 people. One of my tasks is an economic assessment of the community for future sustainable development projects by the foundation I´m working with but additionally (and what I´m most excited about) I¨ll be working with a group of local artisans, helping them organize as a business to sell their goods in local markets. Unfortunately the closest internet connection will be about an hour bus ride north so my already slacker blog postings are unfortunately going to get worse... but we are going for quality here right? :)
My love to all, Dayna

The Galapagos

Where to I begin to explain the awesomeness that is The Galapagos Islands!

After 7 weeks of intensive Spanish classes, I decided to treat myself to a trip to The Galapagos Islands. I chose to do a land based tour rather than the more traditional boat tour largely because it´s cheaper (and included a bunch of free activities), but also because my money then goes to people who live on the islands (hotels and restaurants) rather than the owners of the boats who are often not even from Ecuador. My small attempt at Eco tourism.

All of my photos (warning, there are a lot of them) can be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dayna.erickson/Glapagos# (and yes, I did spell Galapagos wrong in the album title, but I can´t figure out how to change it in Picasa, anyone know?)

Here are some of my favorites though. A narrative of the trip will follow next time I´m at a computer.

I´m off to catch a bus!

Lovingly,
Dayna

Taken while snorkeling.

Sunset on Isabella Island

Male Magnificent Frigate (only the single ones puff up their throats like that, trying to get chicks.)

Blue Footed Boobie!!!!

A tortoise having lunch.

Tortuga Bay

One of many friendly Sea Lions.

I love this guy. He looks like ET... or ET looks like him since I think he´s older.